One of their readers made a comment to the effect of "with a face like that I can see why strangers would approach her." It's really a problem! People think she looks like Petey from the Little Rascals, or some other cartoon dog, just see cute, and think she's happy to be squished and petted and approach with no realization that she might have issues.
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| Photo by Teresa Dardis |
I'm not surprised when strangers on the street have this response. But I had a similar encounter at a dog training class. There were two other beautiful white-with-eye-spots pitties, who were well behaved, smart, awesome dogs in Lola's class. I was walking into class one night with one of the other dog/person pairs (gorgeous purebred pup) and the person asked what kind of dog Lola was. I gave her my usual answer and she said with a kind of disgust "you mean like those other two?". I replied that yes, most likely all three of them were made of the same parts in different combinations, and weren't they all great!
This was only a few sessions in, and I'm pretty sure that by the end of the class she'd noticed what great students the 3 pitties were, and how much their people loved them, and how much they loved their people.
Cuteness was a huge deterrent to teaching Badger stranger-manners. When he was a tiny puppy, people would run up to us and encourage him to jump all over them, despite our protests. Now that he's bigger, people tend to give us a wide berth, which has allowed us to teach him to sit when he sees a stranger.
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you work to make these moments teachable. Lola is SUPER cute, so I can see how that'd be a problem! You and Christine should totally talk about this because I've seen it happen with Nabi. Zoe isn't shy, so it isn't an issue with us. Instead, we have problems when people try to pet Stella (because she is temperamental and will bite if an unfamiliar person touches her). But in those cases, the people are friends and family, so it's easier to explain!
ReplyDeleteTag, you're it! I just tagged you- check my blog for questions. If you've already been tagged just post a link to your previous post.
ReplyDeleteI know someone who had their dog who was afraid of stranger wear a t-shirt that said "Work Dog" in public to discourage people from rushing her. She also had a problem of being "too pretty for her own good!"
ReplyDeleteWell, she certainly is a beauty (that picture is stunning!), but from what you've written it seems like you're taking the right precautions and doing the best both by Lola and those who approach her!
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